Students will be able to buy furniture without going out of town as Finest Furniture HomeStore will open in DeKalb next week.

The store will be in the Parkview Business Center on Sycamore Road just north of Jewel-Osco.

Finest Furniture will specialize in Ashley Furniture products and Serta mattresses, and will have other furnishing accessories.

Store manager Sam Sharawi said he was surprised there wasn’t a furniture store already in DeKalb.

“We have a store in Joliet, and a student from the university bought a mattress,” Sharawi said. “We delivered the mattress for her, but we were interested in why she bought one from us all the way out here and not from in DeKalb. We did some research and it became clear we should open [in DeKalb].”

Mayor John Rey is happy to see a retail furniture store opening in DeKalb to give residents a local retailer to which they can go.

“I think it will bring furniture purchases to the local community, where we’ve been losing those to surrounding areas [by] not having a local store available,” Rey said. “Having a store available will bring those purchases into the DeKalb community and provide a convenience for our residents.”

Economic development consultant Roger Hopkins believes the city is losing $5 to 10 million in sales to surrounding areas because the city doesn’t have a furniture retailer.

“I think the store could recover at least $3 million,” Hopkins said. “But we’re definitely hoping they do better.”

He believes the furniture store will also help other businesses in the area.

“I think it will help some of the retailers, like Flappy’s in the shopping center, and help rent more vacant space that’s been empty there,” Hopkins said.

To promote the grand opening of the brand new store location Sharawi said there will be a store-wide sale.

“We are going to be [having] 20 percent off storewide during an opening sale,” Sharawi said. “[And] for probably the rest of December.”